five questions to ask before building a startup

THE FIVE QUESTIONSTO ASK BEFOREBUILDING A STARTUP

IAP 2014

WHO ARE WE

Elliot Cohen R. Colin Kennedy

WHO ARE YOU?

WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?

Understand how to build the right thing

with the right people.

AGENDA

o 2 types of questionso Key elements for a startupo 5 key questionso What the experts thinko Where to go next

2 TYPES OF QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS YOU ASK YOURSELF

QUESTIONS YOU ASK OTHERS

AGENDA


KEY ELEMENTS FOR A STARTUP

MARKET

PRODUCT

TECHNOLOGY

KEY ELEMENTS FOR A STARTUP

• Team• Market• Product• Technology• Money

AGENDA


5 KEY QUESTIONS

WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?

WHO DO WE WANT TO WORK WITH?

WHAT DO WE WANT TO CREATE IN THE WORLD?

WHAT’S OUR VISION?

WHAT ARE WE WILLING TO DO TO GET THERE?

5 KEY QUESTIONS

1. What does success look like?2. Who do we want to work with?3. What do we want to create in the

world?4. What’s our vision?5. What are we willing to do to get there?

AGENDA


WHAT THE EXPERTS THINK

THE RESEARCH

“What do you wish you’d asked before starting a company?”

Over 30 responses from serial entrepreneurs, investors, advisors, & first time Founders

Kai Gray

How do you function when your feelings are hurt? Startups are more prone to hurt feelings and ego beatings than

any place on earth. Can you still cope and do the

job when your ego is bruised?

Amanda von Goetz

Do my values and priorities in life align with the startup lifestyle?”… or rather, "Can

my lifestyle sustain the startup 'thing'?”

What does that really MEAN to each co-founder? Do they have any idea how HARD it is, how much they

are going to have to hustle?

Dan Adams

What’s your relationship history?

Because we are about to be married

(seriously and I’ve been married for almost 10

years…)

Gihan Amarasiriwardena

Think about the kind of work that they will be doing NOW and in 3

Years … is this person truly knowledgeable

about a specific skill set necessary for your

company? Are they a pair of hands?

James Altucher

Have you found one person this product will

easily help?

Brett van Zuiden

What unique insight do you have for the specific problem you are solving?

Why is that insight unique to you, and why

do you believe that insight to be true/correct?

Drew Volpe

How will the co-founders make decisions and resolve

conflicts ? What are the biggest decisions you've had

to work through so far ?The biggest controllable

reason why startups fail is co-founder conflict: the

founders don't figure out a way of dealing with decisions when they

disagree.

Mark Soper

If you learned tomorrow that the exact thing

you've envisioned exists, how would you react? Would you run out and buy it? Would you try to join them? Double your resolve and try to out-

compete them?

Ty Danco

Who are all of the stakeholders here, and are we all on the same

page?This includes founders, investors, advisors, and

it changes over time – so you have to revisit the

conversation.

Alex Loijos

What’s my risk profile, at my age? Should I be

starting something vs. taking a secure paying

job?What I didn't know is that the learning experience

from being an entrepreneur will bring

tremendous value to any future job I take.

David Tisch

Which one of us gets a boss first?

ie: who doesn't scale. Set expectations up

front, be on the same transparent page… and

things might change obviously

Delian Asparouhov

Is this really the best use of your time right now?

Jason Jacobs

Is this a shotgun marriage?

Get to know them first, do some collaboration

together before becoming official and

see how it feels.

Taariq Lewis

Do you really love our target customers or are

they just bags of money?

Jeremy Weiskotten

How much do we trust each other?

Trust is super important. I wouldn't work with people I don't trust, can't confide in, or can't confide in me. You have to be able to have the hard conversations -- about

each other, clients/customers, and

employees.

Jason Shin

Do you run toward or run away from uncertainty?

My opinion is that the people who relish that

uncertainty - those who view it as an opportunity

to figure things out in ways others won't - are the ones who will thrive.

Dharmesh Shah

What part of our plan are we each unwilling to change?Not all startups need to

change their plans during the course of their

evolution. Just the ones that want to survive and

succeed.Having said that, there may be elements of the plan that you don’t want to change.

Will Whitney

What can we do to test this now?

There is always a way to test your value

proposition.Unscalable is fine; just go out and try to sell

your product before you build it!

Tony Longo

Short of going into the Navy SEAL program, we

are electing to take on the most challenging career possible, do you really want it that bad? And

why? What are the drivers to create / own / manage

your own business?(because it ain't pretty...)

Jeff Engler

Do I know anyone who's currently an

entrepreneur and have I spent an hour talking

with her about what her life is like?

Wayne Chang

In the triangle of speed, quality, and cost, do I

have enough resources to worry only about

speed and quality and not about cost?

Ed Roberts

What do you think is the relative ownership for me relative to you?

David Cancel

Why now?

Took me 5 startups to finally figure out the importance of that

question. It should be repeated/asked as a

mantra. Why now? Why now?...

AGENDA


WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?

MEET NEW PEOPLE

EXPLORE

GO AND DO

RESOURCES

Books

• Founder’s Dilemmas by Noam Wasserman

• Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson

• Startup Life by Brad Feld and Amy Batchelor

Web

• Quora• 99u• AVC by Fred Wilson• Essays by Paul

Graham• Feld Thoughts by Brad

Feld

STAY CONNECTED

Elliot

@elliotcohen

Colin

@rcolinkennedy

THANKS TO THE ENTREPRENEURS

• Dan Adams• James Altucher• Gihan

Amarasiriwardena• Delian Asparouhov• Fan Bi• David Cancel• Wayne Chang• Anand Dass• Ty Danco• Jeff Engler• Robb Fitzsimmons• Kai Gray

• Dharmesh Shah• Jason Shin• Mark Soper• Tyler Spalding• David Tisch• Amanda von Goetz• Brett van Zuiden• Jeremy Weiskotten• Scott Weller• Aaron White• Will Whitney• Drew Volpe

• Jason Jacobs• Cort Johnson• Taariq Lewis• Alex Loijos• Anthony Longo• Evan Morikawa• Christopher Moses• Nick Perold• Kash Razzaghi• Ed Roberts• Christian Rodriguez• Ben Rubin

THANKS

five questions to ask before building a startup

Education